The Romance Genre

I read my first (clean) romance novel when I was in the sixth grade. The title was “The Thing About Clarissa”, written by Roberta St. Clair Cook, published in the dark ages. Mom

suggested I read it because she loved it and it was set in the Ohio area where she grew up. I have always blamed my need to read and write romance on Ms. Cook, and still wish to this day she had written more books. Of course, as a teen and young adult, I read many other books in the romance genre until I became a librarian. At that point, I had to expand my list if I wanted to be a good librarian and help all the patrons who visited my branch. The books I write, however, will always include romance, with a mix of mystery, suspense, history or even elements of the paranormal. Romance is the most popular fiction genre and has been for a long time. All romance sub-genres have an HEA with romance at the heart of the story. According to an article on Reedsy, it’s a billion-dollar industry, which doesn’t surprise me. As I said, I’m a former librarian. Romance readers, mostly women, young and old, are a large and loyal segment of readers. And, they don’t all get their books from the library. IngramSpark states romance readers read 30 to 100+ books each year. Often, these readers prefer not to wait until the library acquires the books they want. I understand their urgency. Sometimes, library orders are a little delayed. Then there’s the issue of holds–those library readers who put their name on the list before you.

Of the sub-genres, contemporary romance is the current favorite. Romantasy and young-adult are also very popular. Erotica, romantic suspense and historical romance are in the top-ten as well. Interestingly enough, Harlequin recently made the decision to stop publishing historical romance. Here’s one of the articles on that decision:

https://people.com/romance-publisher-harlequin-ends-historical-romance-11906374.

Let’s see how long it takes them to rethink their choice, and whether other publishers of historical romance make big money in the meantime. Frankly, historical is my first preference in both reading and writing, and I bet Julia Quinn would agree with me, as well as the many library patrons I served over 20+ years.

Here are other interesting stats on romance/fiction books from the last few years. 30 to 40 percent of e-book sales are romance. For print copies, romance sells around 39 million annually in the US. 82 percent of romance readers buy books at least once a month. Women account for 80 percent of fiction sales in the US and UK. While a librarian, I noticed a high female readership in book circulation. Of course, men are readers, too, but not to the degree that women read. Finally, one last stat which seems totally logical. Holiday themed romance sales spike by 200 percent during November and December.

To sum it all up, I don’t think romance reading is ever going to die, no matter what format or sub-genre. And, yes, that makes me happy.